I’ve often struggled with the practical applications of our end-times message. As a preacher, whenever speaking on the books of Daniel and Revelation, I’ve often felt my conclusions have sounded eerily similar. “Things will get bad—but don’t worry. When Jesus comes back, everything will be fine.”
To be clear, I love that Seventh-day Adventists have a hopeful eschatology. I’m encouraged by our conviction that Jesus is coming soon to set right all wrongs, defeat evil forever and restore both this broken world and its broken people. However, I wonder if our expectation of Jesus’ second coming has warped our motivations.
Irish philosopher Peter Rollins tells a parable of a small group of unknown disciples who fled Jerusalem following Jesus’ crucifixion. Travelling to a distant land, they established a community committed to keeping the memory of Christ alive and living according to His teachings. One hundred years later, they were discovered by Christian missionaries. The missionaries were astounded that the villagers had no knowledge of Jesus’ resurrection, so they shared what had happened on the other side of Easter. The villagers were overjoyed, and a great celebration took place. However, one of the missionaries noticed the village elder was missing and when sought out, was confused to find him at the edge of the village, weeping and praying. Confused, the missionary asked him what was wrong. The elder replied,
“Since the founding of this community, we pursued the ways of Jesus faithfully, even though it cost us dearly, and we remained resolute despite the belief that death had defeated Him and one day would defeat us also.
“Each day we have forsaken our very lives for Him because we judged Him wholly worthy of the sacrifice. But now, I am concerned that my children and my children’s children may follow Him, not because of His radical life and supreme sacrifice, but selfishly, because His sacrifice will ensure their eternal life.”
The hope of heaven and earth restored is core for Seventh-day Adventists. What a powerful comfort—that every worry, wound and wrong will one day be mended by God Himself. What a powerful message to communicate to a suffering world! And yet, even the posture of this hope reveals an uncomfortable truth: that it’s all about me. I become a Christian so I can have salvation now; so I can have peace about my final destination; so I can have assurance about the ultimate fate of the planet.
To be clear, there’s nothing inherently wrong with any of those desires. I do think, though, that if we give them primacy in our eschatological imagination, we’ll miss the point. When Jesus prayed for future believers in John 17, He asks that they all may “be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You” (John 17:21). Often thought of as a statement of divinity as well as church unity, this passage also speaks to the point of discipleship: that disciples divinely dwell in Christ, just as Christ divinely dwells in the Father. This spiritual cohabitation is deeply mysterious, but Jesus’ intent is clear: “Then the world will know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (17:23). The point of following Jesus isn’t to secure a first-class ticket to the afterlife—it’s to experience God’s transformative presence both in the now as well as in the future. While we should absolutely look forward to the day when God will “make all things new”, we shouldn’t ignore the deeper work of embracing the presence of Jesus in our lives and in our communities.
The parable I shared earlier is perhaps disconcerting for us, partly because it illustrates an uncomfortable truth: that too often, we see God as a means to an end. To these fictional villagers, the point was Jesus Himself, not anything He had to offer either in the present or in the future. I don’t think I can say it any better than biblical scholar Eric Ortlund who in his book Piercing Leviathan, asks the most uncomfortable question of all: “Do God’s people love and fear Him for God’s own sake? For God as the goal, as an end in Himself? Or is God a means to some other end? Will any human enter into and maintain a relationship with God when the only thing to gain is God Himself?”
